Towns Join for Regional Approach to Affordable Housing

Interview with Aaron Clausen, AICP; City of Beverly, Director, Planning and Community Development

Rather than express generalized worry about the “lack of affordable housing”, Peabody, Salem and Beverly have created an intermunicipal Memorandum of Mnderstanding (MOU) to very specifically define and target the problem and the population they want to address.

According to Aaron Clausen, “There is a fair amount of context that goes along with the MOU, but primarily the communities got together as sort of a coalition to survey and understand what was going on relative to homelessness. What came out of that is a recognition that there is not enough affordable housing generally, and particularly transitional housing, or more specifically permanent supportive housing.

“Salem and Beverly both have shelters, however the shelters were basically serving as permanent housing (and running out of space). That won’t help someone into a stable housing situation. Anyway, this was the agreement (attached MOU) and the good news is that it has resulted in affordable housing projects; one is done in Salem for individuals and Beverly has a 75 unit family housing project permitted and seeking funding that has a set aside for families either homeless or in danger of becoming homeless.

“There is also a redevelopment of a YMCA in downtown Beverly that will increase the number of Single Room Occupancy units. I wouldn’t say that the MOU got it done by itself but it helps demonstrate a regional approach. ”

To see the actual Memorandum of Understanding between these three municipalities to address affordable housing, particularly for people who are homeless or at risk of homelessness, click HERE.

News

Arlington 2020: Low Density Housing

I’ve had an annual ritual for the past several years: obtain a spreadsheet of property assessments from the Town Assessor, load them in to a database, and run a series of R computations against the data. I started doing this for a number of reasons: to understand what was built where (our zoning laws have changed over time, and there are numerous non-conforming uses), the relationship between land and building values, the capital costs of different types of housing, and how these factors have changed over time.

I’d typically compile these analyses into a fact-book of sorts, and email it around to people that I thought might be interested. This year, I’m going to post the analyses here as a series of articles. This first installment contains basic information about Arlington’s low-density housing: single-, two-, and three-family homes, as well as condominiums. Condominiums are something of an oddball in this category — a condominium can be half of a two-family structure, part of a larger residential building, or somewhere in between. There’s a lot of variety.

Here’s a table showing how the number of units has changed over time, since 2013.

land use	2013	2014	2015	2016	2017	2018	2019	2020
Single Family	7984	7983	7991	8000	7994	7994	7998	7999
Condominium	3242	3304	3367	3492	3552	3662	3726	3827
Two-family	2352	2332	2308	2282	2263	2218	2183	2139
Three-family	207	201	196	194	193	190	185	182

Arlington’s predominant form of housing — the single family home — has stayed relatively static; we’ve added 15 over the last seven years. The number of condominiums has increased significantly: +585 over seven years. That, coupled with the reduction of two-family homes (-213) and three-family homes (-25) leads me to believe that a fair number of rental units have been removed from the market.

Next, I’d like to look at how these homes are spread across our various zoning districts. (The “Notes” section at the bottom of the post explains what the zoning district codes mean).

Zone	Single-Family	Condo	Two-family	Three-family
B1	8	22	13	11
B2	1	4		1
B2A	1	18
B3		59	4
B4	1	59	5	5
B5			1	1
I	8	18	7	1
R0	502
R1	6798	168	200	7
R2	647	1816	1881	124
R3	4	39	11	17
R4	23	79	2	3
R5	3	616	5	4
R6	2	686	8	7
R7	1	243	2	1

A few points to note:

R0 is our newest district, which was established in 1991. It consists only of conforming single-family homes.
R1 is Arlington’s original (per 1975 zoning) single-family district. It’s predominantly single-family homes, but there are a fair number of two-family homes, and even a few three-families. The presence of condominiums suggests additional multi-family homes (that consist of two or more condominiums)
R2 is predominantly two-, and three-family homes. Although three-family homes are no longer allowed in this district, R2 has the largest number of three-families in town.
Residential uses are no longer allowed in the industrial (I) districts, but the I districts contain 34 homes. These buildings pre-date the current zoning laws (aka “pre-existing non-conforming”). A good portion of the Dudley street industrial district is a residential neighborhood.

I’m pointing out these conformities (and non-conformities) for a reason. The zoning map (and use tables) dictate what is allowed today, along with specifying a vision for the future. Our zoning bylaw happens to contain a strong statement to this effect: “It is the purpose of this Bylaw to discourage the perpetuity of nonconforming uses and structures whenever possible” (section 8.1.1(A)). Despite the strong statement of intent, it can take decades (if not generations) for a built environment to catch up with the bylaw’s prescriptions.

I’ll finish this post with a breakdown of how condominiums are distributed across the various zoning districts:

Zone	2013	2014	2015	2016	2017	2018	2019	2020	delta
(N/A)	14	15	0	0	0	0	0	0	-14
B1	16	16	18	18	18	22	22	22	6
B2	2	2	2	2	4	4	4	4	2
B2A	19	18	18	18	18	18	18	18	-1
B3	55	55	61	59	59	59	59	59	4
B4	47	47	59	59	59	59	59	59	12
I	18	18	18	18	18	18	18	18	0
R1	140	144	146	148	150	154	162	168	28
R2	1355	1406	1456	1518	1574	1670	1723	1816	461
R3	22	25	28	31	31	37	37	39	17
R4	65	67	67	79	79	79	79	79	14
R5	616	616	616	616	616	616	616	616	0
R6	630	632	635	683	683	683	686	686	56
R7	243	243	243	243	243	243	243	243	0

The last column (“delta”) shows the difference between 2013 and 2020. The largest increase occurred in the R2 (two-family) district, followed by R6 (medium-density apartments, where most of the increase took place in 2014) and R1 (single-family).

That it will do it for the first installation. In the next post, we’ll look at how the cost (assessed values, actually) of Arlington’s low density housing has changed over the last seven years.

Here is a spreadsheet, containing the various tables shown in this article.

Notes

Arlington’s zoning map divides the town into a set of districts, and each district has regulations about what kinds of buildings and uses are allowed (or not allowed). The districts mentioned in this article are:

B1 (Neighborhood Office district)
B2 (Neighborhood Business distrct)
B2A (Major Business District)
B3 (Village Business District)
B4 (Vehicular-Oriented Business District)
I (Industrial District)
R0 (Single-Family, large-lot district)
R1 (Single-Family Distict)
R2 (Two-Family District)
R3 (Three-Family District)
R4 (Townhouse District)
R5 (Low-Density Apartment District)
R6 (Medium-Density Apartment District)
R7 (High-Density Apartment District)

Arlington’s Zoning Bylaw describes each district in detail (see sections 5.4.2, 5.5.2, and 5.6.2)

Arlington 2020 assessors data

Written by Steve Revilak July 5, 2020

Consider the Schools: Add More Housing

Jennifer Susse authored this letter on January 20, 2020. Ms. Susse is a member of the Arlington School Committee and a Town Meeting Member. She closely follows the costs and demographic trends of school enrollment and of Town finances.

I write in support of efforts to increase housing in Arlington, both as a resident and as a member of the School Committee. I support these efforts not in spite of their potential effects on our schools, but because of their potential effects on both schools and town.

I have often spoken to the community about our rapid enrollment growth — over 2,000 students added in the last 25 years, 60 percent of those in the last 10 years. Because of these large enrollment increases the Arlington Public Schools have had to add capacity, which the town has generously supported. So how can I be in favor of adding more housing to Arlington, and thus potentially adding even more students to our already stressed school facilities?

Losing diversity
I will get to the capacity issue in a bit, but first I want to point out that in the last 30 years Arlington has lost both economic and generational diversity. The story about the loss of economic diversity is well known; the loss of generational diversity less so.

Between 1990 and 2010, the percentage of residents between 20 and 34 dropped from 28 percent to 17 percent. During that same period, the population over 65 dropped from 18 percent to 16 percent. What replaced these demographic groups were primarily residents between the ages of 35 and 54 and 0 and 14. In other words, mostly families with school-aged children. The loss of both types of diversity weakens the fabric of our community. However, the loss of generational diversity also weakens the town’s finances.

The average cost to the town of an additional student is about $8,500, a number that includes what’s known as the Enrollment Growth Factor (the amount that the town gives to the schools for each additional student in the system, currently at 50 percent of the per pupil cost of the preceding year, or $7,297), as well as the average cost of the benefits that the town pays for new hires.

What this means is that during the time a household has children in the school system, it is likely receiving more in benefits than it pays in taxes. For the town’s finances to work, we also need people who do not have children to live and pay taxes in Arlington, including young adults and older adults for whom Arlington is becoming less affordable because of condo conversions, teardowns, etc.

Overcrowded classrooms
But what about our overcrowded classrooms? The answer is that given the type of housing likely to be created on the main corridors, and the timing of that housing construction, I am not worried about further stresses to our school facilities.

By the time new housing is built, our elementary-aged population will likely be in modest decline. Five to 10 years out we expect to see enrollment stabilize at the middle and high school levels as well. That does not mean that we will have tons of extra space; just that we will no longer be in danger of taking over art, music, and literacy rooms for general classroom use.

Enrollment projections made by Dr. Jerome McKibbin in 2015 have so far been fairly accurate. His revised projections show that, without additional housing, we are expected to have 350 fewer elementary-aged students in the Arlington Public Schools 12 years from now than we have today.

The discussion about housing in Arlington reminds me of the discussion a few years ago over the Affordable Care Act. At that time, there was a lot of anxiety about potential changes to the health-care system, but insufficient appreciation (in my opinion) of the then current trends.

Zoning changes
Any discussion of zoning changes in Arlington must take an honest look at where we are now, and the direction we are headed in if there were no zoning changes. Our current trends have us losing natural affordability and economic and demographic diversity because of teardowns, condo conversions and sharp price increases. We don’t have the option to freeze Arlington as we know it today (or 10 years ago) in place.

In closing, I would like to say that I am proud of our excellent schools and strongly believe that families who have recently moved to Arlington have strengthened our community, but I do not want Arlington to become a place where people move in with toddlers and move out soon as their children graduate from high school. The current trends have us losing both economic and generational diversity, which threatens not only our community and civic life, but our financial health as well. Adding more and diverse housing can help.

balanced tax base Housing school building capacity school costs school enrollment zoning

Written by Guest Writer January 20, 2020

Housing
News

The State of Zoning for Multi-Family Housing in Greater Boston

Written by Guest Writer July 27, 2019

News

Guide to Zoning Amendments

Written by Steve Revilak April 15, 2019

Housing In Arlington

Why Is This Our Issue & What Should We Do About It?

(presented by Adam Chapdelaine, Town Manager, to Select Board on July 22, 2019)

Overview

Since 1980 the price of housing in Massachusetts has surged well ahead of other fast growing states including California and New York. While the national “House Price Index” is just below 400, four times what an average house might have cost in 1980, a typical house in Massachusetts is now about 720% what it was in 1980. Median household income in the state has only increased about 15% during the same period. No wonder people in Arlington are feeling the stresses of housing costs if they want to live here and are feeling protective of the equity value time has provided them if they bought years ago.

In response to concerns about zoning, affordable housing and housing density, the Town joined the “Mayors’ (and Managers’) Coalition on Housing” to address these growing pressures. This 12 page slide deck presentation outlines the key data points, the number of low and very low income households in Arlington, the rate of condo conversion that is absorbing rental units, etc.

Solutions are offered including:

• Amendments to Inclusionary Zoning Bylaw
• Housing Creation Along Commercial Corridor – Mixed Use & Zoning Along Corridor
• Accessory Dwelling Units – Potential Age & Family Restrictions
• Other Tools Can Be Considered That Are Outside of Zoning But Have An Impact on Housing

Chapdelaine’s suggested next steps are:

• Continued Public Engagement
• Town Manager & Director of DPCD Meet with ARB
• Select Board & ARB Hold Joint Meeting in Early Fall
• ARB Recommends Strategies to Pursue in Late Fall/Early Winter

The Select Board approved the suggested next steps and a joint ARB/ Select Board meeting should be scheduled in the near future.

Note from Reporter: As a community, Arlington has long prided itself on its economic diversity. With condo conversions, tear downs leading to “McMansions”, higher paid workers arriving in response to new jobs, etc., Arlington is at great risk of losing this diversity that has long enriched the community. Retirees looking to downsize and young people who have grown up in Arlington looking for their first apartment are finding it impossible to stay in town. Shop keepers and town employees are challenged to afford the rising housing costs. With a reconsideration of zoning along Arlington’s transit corridors, Arlington NOW has an opportunity to create new village centers, like those recommended in the recent STATE OF HOUSING report. These village centers along our transit corridors could be higher, denser but also offer the compelling visual design and amenities desired by people who want to walk to cafes, shops and public transit.

Accessory Dwelling Units Amendments to Inclusionary Zoning Bylaw Arlington MA housing Arlington Redevelopment Board Arlington Select Board Continued Public Engagement Housing Creation Along Commercial Corridor Mixed Use & Zoning Along Corridor Select Board & ARB Hold Joint Meeting in Early Fall

Written by Guest Writer July 27, 2019

The Gentrification of Arlington

(Comments presented to the Arlington Redevelopment Board and Select Board during a public hearing on Jan 13, 2020)

Steve Revilak, 111 Sunnyside Ave. In the interest of disclosure, I live in market rate housing that was built by a developer. Among Arlington residents, I’m not unusual in that regard.

At the end of December, a friend sent me an article that appeared on Redfin’s blog, which ranked the most competitive real estate markets in 2019. Out of 20 listings, three were neighborhoods in Arlington: East Arlington at #3, the Brattle Street Area at #5, and Arlington Center at #12. This is only one data point, but Redfin is a national realtor and works in markets all across the country. Arlington is a desirable place to live.

Housing costs have steadily increased over the last 20 years, modulo a brief reset during the economic recession of 2008. For example, the prior owner of my house purchased it for $151,000 is 1999. I purchased it for $359,000 in 2007 (when it was assessed at $287k). Today, it’s assessed at $501k, which is consistent with similar home sales from 2018.

The net effect: each year a new family moves to town, they have to have a more money (or be willing to spend more on housing) than a family who moved in the year before. With that in mind, I’d like to cite a few figures from the 2019 Town Survey:

Question 37: Indicate the number of years lived in Arlington. 59% of respondents indicated 15 years or less. Nearly 30% indicated five years or less. Despite the prices, people still move here.
Question 40: What was your annual household income in 2018. The most common response was “more than $200,000”, with over 28% answering that way. Nearly 71% of respondents indicated earning $100,000/year or more. Arlington’s median income is likely higher than HUD’s AMI for the Metro Boston area.
Question 41: What is the highest level of educated completed by a member of your household. Over 73% indicated having a masters degree or higher.

I don’t mean to knock people who’ve lived here 15 or fewer years, have advanced degrees, or have household earnings of $200,000 or more per year. I check every single one of those boxes myself. But I do want to point out that we are a highly educated and affluent community. Put another way, we have a population that matches the cost of our housing.

Twenty years of gentrification haven’t killed us: we’ve expanded town staff and services, we’re renovating public buildings, and we’re getting a new high school. Those are all good things, made possible because residents have the money to pay for them, and have been willing to do so.

We can absolutely keep the status quo we’ve had, but I want to recognize that the combination of the housing market and Arlington’s policies have created an economic barrier to living here. I see two issues: one is affordability, and the other is an imbalance between supply and demand.

There are a variety of things we could do, and I think we should consider all of them. I don’t see a viable way to relieve housing pressure that doesn’t involve more housing. And that’s what I hope we can do over the coming years: find ways to build more housing.

gentrification housing affordability

Written by Steve Revilak January 28, 2020

The Artemis Arlington. An old brick factory building attaches to a new modern building with beautiful landscaping in front.

Housing

Overwhelming Demand for Arlington’s New Affordable Housing Units

Written by Guest Writer June 14, 2024

How to Talk To Your Neighbors About the MBTA Communities Plan

While you’ve heard a lot about the MBTA Communities Plan, you may be surprised to learn that your neighbors might not know about it. If they have heard the name, they might think it has to do with MBTA buses. Or they might have heard rumors giving an incorrect idea of what the plan is.

You may be tempted to tell them to read the full report by the MBTA Communities Plan Working Group [PDF], but most people don’t have the time to study a 51-page report, even if it’s the most gripping read since Gone Girl. Many of them are so busy they may only have ten seconds to spare.

But you’re in luck, because we’ve written up quick talking points you can use if you’re talking to someone for ten seconds, a minute, or two minutes. If they bring up something they’ve heard that seems incorrect, we also have responses so you can clear up that misinformation.

Ten second version:

The MBTA Communities law says that communities served by the MBTA need to zone areas for multi-family housing. We need more capacity than the state requires in order to:

Provide more housing
Support local businesses
Be equitable across town

One minute version:

The MBTA Communities law says that communities served by the MBTA like Arlington need to zone some areas for multi-family housing. We need more capacity than the state requires to:

Provide more housing
Support local businesses
Be equitable across town

Right now, developers can easily build a McMansion. But they have to go through a long and pricey permitting process to build multi-family housing that’s the exact same size. This plan will make it just as easy to build apartment buildings of the same size as that McMansion. And if it’s at least 6 units it will include an affordable unit!

Two minute pitch:

The MBTA Communities Law is a state law. It requires communities with MBTA service to zone some areas for multi-family housing. Each community is required to reach a specific capacity of multi-family housing. Arlington’s current plan goes beyond what the state requires. We need to go above and beyond because:

This plan is the only one that gives Arlingtonians what they initially requested. They asked that the zoning for multi-family housing would be:
- distributed across town
- near public transit
- walking distance from shops and businesses
Currently, a developer can build a 5,000 square foot McMansion in these areas, but not a building with five, less expensive, 1,000 square foot units. This plan would allow for both.
Arlington only requires affordable units in buildings of 6 units or greater. Allowing larger buildings could result in more affordable units for people to live in.

Common Concerns

Use these ONLY if the person brings up these concerns. Listen carefully to what they have to say first, and stick to the top three points.

“Why are we jamming this legislation through? Why don’t we take more time to explore it?”

While it may seem that the process is moving quickly, in fact planning and discussions have been going on for almost a year. The topic was first introduced in a town-wide meeting on November 17, 2022. The Working Group first met in February and has convened 19 times since then. All the Working Group’s meetings were open to the public and attracted a number of attendees. There were also three larger public forums, several surveys, and other outreach outlined on page 5 of the working group’s report. In any case, in order to comply with the law, all communities must submit final plans by the end of 2024. By acting now we get to take advantage of pilot programs and other state benefits.

“The plan says we have to build 20,000 homes!”

According to the current plan, an area that currently has about 2100 homes would be re-zoned to permit a maximum of just over 7,000 homes. That translates to a maximum of 5,000 additional apartments and condos.
This theoretical maximum is based on every single unit being 1,000 square feet or less, every single lot being built to the maximum and absolutely no parking. Builders are not likely to build only 1000 square foot units without parking, because there is demand for a variety of units.
Building anywhere close to the maximum can only happen if every single current property owner in the zone sells their parcels to developers. Based on Arlington’s historical property sales, we are unlikely to get anywhere near that number. For example, with a condo duplex, they would need to get both condo owners to sell. (Perhaps you can use your own block as an example.)

“Why can’t we just do the bare minimum?”

When the group looked at a “bare minimum” plan (minimum units on maximum acres), they found that in most areas it would not yield additional housing. In some places, it would permit about 2,100 homes in an area that has over 3,000 homes now – in other words, it would allow fewer homes than already exist.

“But we already have multi-unit buildings on Mass Ave!”

Yes, but the majority were built before 1975. Current zoning and the permitting process make it very difficult for similar buildings to be built today.

“But Arlington can’t handle any more people!”

Arlington’s population is smaller than it used to be. In 1970, we had over 7,000 more people than we have now. And the town’s infrastructure was built to handle 7,000 more people, as were our amenities.
We aren’t just building this for new people. We’re building it so that empty nesters who are downsizing, kids who are moving into their own apartments and other members of our community can stay and have housing that suits their needs.
Businesses, churches and libraries all need a population at a certain level in order to thrive.

“These tall buildings will ruin our neighborhoods and block our light.”

The plan allows for four floors throughout for an important reason. It’s because buildings that are four stories or higher have to meet Americans with Disabilities Act requirements. That means that it will be built so people in wheelchairs or who use a walker can live there. Right now we have very little housing suitable for people with limited mobility, so people who develop mobility issues have to leave Arlington.
Under certain specific circumstances in narrow areas of the plan, it is possible to go up to six floors on Mass Ave only. These buildings have significant bump backs on the fifth and sixth floor. We already have several buildings of this height along Mass Ave.
Elsewhere, this would allow four floors in areas where currently homes are two floors plus a lived-in attic or three floors. This is not a huge change, it is an incremental change.

“But what about our schools? This will overload them!”

By spreading out the housing, we spread out the new students among all the elementary schools and allow the school department to adjust the school zoning if they need to.
Elementary school population has declined by 5% in the past three years and according to projections will decline further. If we don’t add population then the number of elementary students will continue to drop off.
Lexington’s School Enrollment Working Group found that new units do not directly correlate with enrollment growth; smaller units are far less likely to incur growth than larger; spreading out the growth over the town would be easier to absorb.

If you encounter anything you think we should add, please contact us via info@equitable-arlington.org.

Contributors: Charles Blandy, Patrick Hanlon, Dori Mazor, Jennifer Susse, Sanjay Newton, Eugene Benson, Steve Revilak, James Fleming, Barbara Thornton, Nicole Gustas and other members

Written by Equitable Arlington September 8, 2023

Towns Join for Regional Approach to Affordable Housing

Arlington 2020: Low Density Housing

Consider the Schools: Add More Housing

The State of Zoning for Multi-Family Housing in Greater Boston

Guide to Zoning Amendments

Housing In Arlington

The Gentrification of Arlington

Overwhelming Demand for Arlington’s New Affordable Housing Units

How to Talk To Your Neighbors About the MBTA Communities Plan

Recent Posts

Sign Up For Our Mailing List

Related articles

Notes

Overview

Why Is This Our Issue & What Should We Do About It?

Overview

Ten second version:

One minute version:

Two minute pitch:

Common Concerns

“Why are we jamming this legislation through? Why don’t we take more time to explore it?”

“The plan says we have to build 20,000 homes!”

“Why can’t we just do the bare minimum?”

“But we already have multi-unit buildings on Mass Ave!”

“But Arlington can’t handle any more people!”

“These tall buildings will ruin our neighborhoods and block our light.”

“But what about our schools? This will overload them!”

Recent Posts

Sign Up For Our Mailing List